Eisner will not be able to serve in a command position for 2 years, will not assume Bahd 1 post.

IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.- Gen. Benny Gantz decided on Wednesday to dismiss
Lt.-Col. Shalom Eisner from his post as deputy commander of the Jordan
Valley Brigade, after the officer slammed his M-16 into a Danish activist's face
over the weekend.

According to the decision, Eisner will not be able to
serve in a command position for two years and will not take up his planned
posting in the summer as deputy commander of the Bahd 1 Officers Training
School. The decision, however, allows Eisner to remain in the
IDF.

Gantz’s move was based on the findings from OC Central Command
Maj.-Gen. Nitzan Alon’s investigation into the incident, which took place on
Saturday, and found “serious ethical flaws” with Eisner’s conduct.

Alon
and Gantz also discovered professional mistakes with the way Eisner and his
troops had prepared for the bicycle demonstration that was led by Palestinian
and European activists on Road 90. Eisner claimed that he had been attacked by
several of the demonstrators and that he hit them with his rifle to disperse the
demonstration.

A video, however, showed Eisner slam his M-16 in the face
of a Danish protester without provocation.

In another picture he is shown
lifting his M-16 above his head before slamming it into the back of another
demonstrator.

This is the second time this year that Gantz has fired a
senior officer for so-called ethical failures. In February, the chief of staff
dismissed Battalion 74’s commander Lt.-Col.

Muli Cohen for falsifying a
report after he accidentally left a soldier behind following an operation inside
a Palestinian village in the West Bank.

Earlier on Wednesday, the
Palestinian who videotaped Eisner said he would cooperate with the IDF
investigation into the incident.

“I will give them my full testimony and
give them the [video] recording so that they can know the truth and so the
officer is brought to justice for what he did,” Bakr Muhammad Abdel Hak said,
according to Army Radio.

The videographer was summoned to testify by the
military police at an IDF base near Nablus.

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